The present application is based on and claims priority from Japanese Patent Application 2001-267931, filed Sep. 4, 2001, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an indicating instrument for a vehicle, particularly an automobile.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, in an indicating instrument for an automobile, various arrangements have been adopted to provide attractive and novel displays such as an indicating instrument disclosed in JP-A-2-234857. In the disclosed indicating instrument, a so-called black face meter is provided. That is, an electrochromic display device (ECD) is disposed on a dial plate to change the light transmissivity of the ECD according to the operating condition of the dial plate.
Because the light transmissivity of the ECD is changed monotonously in such an indicating instrument, the display is not very attractive and novel.
Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above problems.
It is a main object of the invention to provide an indicating instrument for a vehicle that has attractive and novel displays.
According to a feature of the invention, an indicating instrument for a vehicle includes a dial plate, a light modulation member having variable light transmissivity disposed on the dial plate and a control means for controlling said transmissivity. The light modulation member includes a plurality of variable light modulation sections respectively connected to the control means. The control means controls light transmissivity of each one of the variable light modulation sections.
Therefore, a driver can enjoy a gradually changing, novel and attractive display on the dial plate.
According to another feature of the invention, the dial plate has a plurality of display portions, and each display portion is covered by one of the variable light modulation sections. Therefore, the driver can enjoy a plurality of displays changing differently from each other.
According to another feature of the invention, the control means controls each of the light modulation sections according to a predetermined condition. Preferably, the control means controls each of the light modulation sections when an ignition switch of a vehicle is turned on. The control means may control each of the light modulation sections to successively increase the light transmissivity thereof when the ignition switch is turned on, and to successively decrease the light transmissivity when the ignition switch is turned off.
On the other hand, the control means may control each of the light modulation sections to successively decrease the light transmissivity thereof when the ignition switch is turned on, and to increase the light transmissivity when the ignition switch is turned off.